School shootings are far too common

Bill Cummings |
December 14, 2012
| Updated: December 14, 2012 8:46pm

It has become a too familiar scene across the nation: a gunman rampaging through a suburban school or workplace, leaving death and grief behind.

On Friday, that terror came to Connecticut, and the state may never be the same.

The bodies of 20 young children, six adults and a shooter left in the hallways and rooms of Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School represent the second worst school shooting in American history. Only the 33 dead during the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech is worse.

As shock swept across the state Friday, many found it hard to put thoughts into words. But at the same time, a statewide discussion about school safety and how much security is enough bubbled to the surface.

"I mean, my God, these were kindergarten students," said state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, and a ranking member of the Legislature's Education Committee. "It's a type of horror... of historic proportions. Everyone is upset right now. It's like after 9/11."

Boucher said the time has come to talk about school security and whether metal detectors are appropriate and what types of check-in systems are warranted. "I tried to reassure one parent who called me today but I was thinking about what type of precautions this can elicit," she said.

The sad truth is massacres like the one on Friday have become common, experts say. And those who commit such crimes typically fall into two categories: the profoundly mentally ill or those holding a grievance, maybe from the loss of a job, a child-custody dispute, family issues, marital problems or lingering unemployment.

"It may take many weeks to find out the motivation," said Larry Barton, a professor at the American College, Bryn Mawr, Pa., and a threat assessment instructor for the FBI.

"Usually there are only two reasons: profound mental illness or the grievance collector. I've been involved in 2,800 of these cases and without question the murder of 20 children and six adults is influenced by profound mental illness," Barton said, noting some shooters display both traits.

"Can you prevent this? No. But you can mitigate it. Seventy one percent of the perpetrators who harm in public have communicated their intentions before. You have to see the signs," Barton said, explaining that those signs are often sudden changes in behavior, strange online posts or disturbing statements to friends and relatives.

Connecticut can take some comfort in the fact that it's not alone. During the Columbine shootings in 1999, 12 high schools students and adults died and 21 were injured.

Earlier this year, a gunman dressed as a Batman character killed 12 and injured 58 during a rampage at a Colorado movie theater. In 1998, a disgruntled worker strolled into the Connecticut Lottery offices in Newington and killed four co-workers and himself.

There have also been murders at Connecticut schools. In 2009, a 20-year-old UConn football player was stabbed to death on campus. In 1985, a 13-year-old Portland student fatally shot a school custodian, wounded a principal and secretary and held a student hostage with a rifle.

"We know, from our experience, of the unending sorrow and horror that has now descended on Newtown," Steger said in a letter to Connecticut. "No words can express how they now feel over this senseless and insane tragedy. Our words seem so inadequate in light of their plight. We extend our deepest condolences, thoughts and prayers to the Newtown community as it begins to cope with their grief and blackness."

So what, if anything, can be done to prevent future tragedies?

Barton said less than five percent of school districts nationally have any type of electronic locking system for doors, such as buzzers to let people in or a badge system to identify employees. He said he was impressed that the Sandy Hook school had a buzzer system on its doors.

Reports on Friday indicated the shooter, whose mother apparently taught at the school, was known to school officials, so that's likely why he was let inside.

Hamilton, the Stamford school superintendent, said her schools have varying levels of security, from guards at high schools to doors at other schools equipped with cameras and buzzers.

"We have been putting safety protocols and procedures in place at all of our schools. We do regular sweeps to make sure doors are closed. Still, you can have all the security protocols, metal detectors and armed guards, but if someone is determined to do harm they will find a way," Hamilton said.

Boucher said the state is likely to now have a school security discussion. "There will be a desire for a response. For me, it will have to be how to better secure schools and whether metal detectors should be used and whether there is an outcry for gun control."